Classic rules, and some disagreements.

***Edited"***In the original Axis and Allies, Harris made it clear that the pieces to be used in the box were set as a limit of how many of those “battle groups” you could create.

forum wont let me post the link… let me try to get fancy:

www harrisgamedesign com/pdf/A&A_Classic_FAQ.pdf

The most obvious for this was the aircraft carrier. If you play with the straight up 2nd Edition rules for axis and allies classic, you could never have more than two carrier pieces on the board (white/red chips are ‘unlimited’)"

For me, I would never consider playing without all the extra pieces I have, and so I have to ask, where exactly did this come from? It isn’t in any of the two sets of rules I am familiar with {1st and 2nd editions}, and as the 2nd edition offers additional sets of playing pieces right in the rule book on page #2, lower right hand corner, I have to cry foul on this. A&A is NOT Fortress America, where each army has an EXACT strength, and why in the world would folks be offered in the rules additional complete sets of 299 plastic playing pieces, if they were never going to be allowed to use them?!?!

I first saw this on a Youtube video, and the fellow held up to the camera some printout {from somewhere} that seemed to be saying this. If the rules themselves offer additional sets of pieces, and the paper that was held up to the camera even said that there were no limits to how many of a type of units a player can have, why in the world would anyone buy pieces that were not going to be allowed.

This seems to me to smell fishy. I don’t think that this is a hoax or anything along those lines, I’m betting that it is a misunderstanding or miscommunication somewhere in the past, and got grandfathered in somehow?

So let me ask, has anyone played by this ‘so-called’ rule? The reason I have to use the {so-called} tag here, is that IDK that this was ever in the actual rules of the game, but I think it is unlikely. I think that there was some attempt to justify this stuff, as somehow it figured into game balance, but I really cannot think how that could even work. It definitely would not be historical with regard to WWII.

I’ll have more later on, but for now looking for an answer to this question first from @AcesWild5049 and anyone else that can provide context.

@AcesWild5049 I’ve greatly enjoyed your 10 video’s, and am looking forward to some interesting times using the TripleA program. I would hate to think that I’ve been misplaying A&A for 30 something years, lol.

I found it, page 7, center column, just about the center of the page. "No one could have more than two carriers…!"alt text.

Boy, do I feel stupid!:astonished: :confounded: :confused:

So, that is where this is in the second edition rules. I’m not getting the feel that this is for game balance reasons, so much as, hey, that’s all that came in the box kinda thing. I would like everyone else’s thoughts on this, not because anyone is really going to be limited when playing online, but just for the heck of it.

For instance, with just three additional AA guns for the whole game, the Axis could pull a fast one on turn one, buy all three, put em on transports and ship em off to some out of the way place, thus forcing the allies to go without AA cover for any new complexes they built, and then being open to industrial bombing the whole game.

@CrazyIvan To be more specific, say the Germans player knew his allied player foes would be building IC’s, and so decided to exploit this by building two on his first turn, and invading switzerland on the first turn. Non combat move, Germany AA gun walks into eastern europe, and the southern europe gun goes into switzerland, and then the two newly built guns replace the displaced ones. If the Japanese player also build an AA gun, and this is the last one left in the game, they can move it into an island, say the philippines, and then on the second turn, when the USA/UK IC would be looking to construct their own AA guns, they are screwed for the duration, and nothing could be done about it. Industrial bombing made safe and easy for the Axis…

Ok, now that I have it:
Now that I have the thing, I think that my first impression is the correct one, and that the “Limit” is not something involving any ‘game balance’ issues, but rather just about what came in the box. So, when the rules offer additional playing pieces, it isn’t so you can have a spare if/when you lose a piece, but rather that you can use them to further expand your forces beyond what you could have without the extra pieces.

So, does anyone have an opinion on the proper interpretation of “Limited Pieces”? @AcesWild5049 and I are on opposite sides of this one.

The reason I am still asking about this, is I was getting ready to do a video showing an evil, exploitive, and gamey strategy that having only 3 extra AA guns in a set would allow folks to try using an actual board and pieces.

It would be “All to easy” to pull off a stunt like buying up all the extra/remaining AA guns on turn one, and then your enemies would be screwed if they built new complexes, and thus have an Industrial Complex unprotected by AA guns.

So, who votes buying new pieces:
= ready made spare parts supply, and nothing else.
Or
= removing restrictions based upon too few playing pieces included in the set?

Just interested in hearing folks own thoughts on this issue.

The single biggest thing I think that should never have been done, is allowing the allies to use each others ships!

A video detailing a B1 carrier + transport + infantry buy, followed by the A1 Carrier + 2 transports buy, and immediately stacking 2 fighters on the newly build UK carrier, without the Germans having any chance to prevent this, means that Germany is doomed. If the German player does not kill the UK fleet on turn one, this just makes it impossible for the Germans to even have a chance. If you would like, I can do a quick demonstration/proof of concept video on my Void Stalker youtube channel, demonstrating this.

Ok, so here is the part that debunks all the stuff I see in the Larry Harris FAQ, and the rule book, where folks are trying to (IMHO) misinterpret/misunderstand what is actually in those documents. So, without further ado…

Now:
In the Larry Harris faq, and in the manual, the text is seemingly referring exclusively to the situation where a player has just the one set of 299 plastic playing pieces that come with the boxed game, otherwise known as “Out Of Box”.

This is fine, as far as it goes, and if that were all there was to it, that would be the end of it. However, that is NOT all there is to it, as the same manual has badly worded explanations also makes it clear that folks can buy extra playing pieces. Keep in mind, that the entire box has just 299 plastic playing pieces, so a single extra set (299 additional pieces) will include and entire duplicate of every playing piece in the box! And that this means you get, for each nation:

15 infantry + 10 tanks
10 fighters + 3 bombers
6 submarines & 6 transports
3 Battleships & 2 Aircraft carriers
(55 each nation, 275 total)

And, in addition, you also get:
12 Industrial complexes & 12 anti-aircraft guns.

So, when I ordered 3 additional sets of plastic playing pieces back in the day, some 30 odd years ago, that meant that I had 4 times the usual amounts of plastic playing pieces, and by the time I got out of the army, I had amassed 7 boxed sets, and 3 additional sets of playing pieces.

Later on still, after selling one box and 1 set, I somehow misplaced and lost all 6 of my remaining boards, and had it not been for eBay, I wouldn’t have been able to make good my losses. I currently have 4 boards, and something like 13 sets of plastic playing pieces.

Up thread, someone tried to claim that these “extra playing pieces” were nothing more than ‘spare parts’, with the implication that they could only be used in the case of replacement of lost pieces. I repudiate that expressed belief.

In both the rules and the FAQ, it is clearly stated that one can have as many units in A&A classic as they can afford to put on the map, but only are limited to how many stacks they can have, based upon the need for every stack to be topped by the appropriate unit.

In other words, every stack must be topped by the correct playing piece, at all times, but nowhere (that I can find) is it clearly and unequivocally stated that if you have more playing pieces than come in a single box (which seems to me to be the basic assumption in the FAQ made from a conversation with Larry Harris back in the day), you STILL cannot make use of them!